Rockets GM Daryl Morey flew to Philadelphia for the opening of free agency not because of a love of cheesesteaks but because that is where Kyle Lowry was. Morey even reportedly brought his coach Kevin McHale with him.
Didn’t matter.
The Rockets deal is dead and the Raptors are the ones with an offer on the table, according to reports from Chris Broussard of ESPN and Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports.
Source: Forget Kyle Lowry to Houston. Rockets wanted sign & trade but Toronto won't deal bc they want to keep Lowry
— Chris Broussard (@Chris_Broussard) July 1, 2014
Kyle Lowry completed his meeting with Toronto GM Masai Ujiri and coach Dwane Casey, and mulling Raptors offer, league source tells Yahoo.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 1, 2014
The Raptors offer reportedly is either four or five years starting at $12 million a year. The Rockets sign-and-trade involved Chandler Parsons.
The Miami Heat have interest in Lowry but they would need him to take a discount — they have less than $13 million in cap space — and that is not likely. (Unless Riley wants to blow his wad on one player, also not likely.) The Lakers are interested but the Raptors are getting serious consideration first, Woj reports..
But the Raptors were always in the driver’s seat, and now their offer is on the table. Sometimes it’s hard to come from the outside and beat the guy already in the clubhouse with the good score.